1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements to a system for photographically recording information on film, and more particularly to a system for recording the shutter speed and aperture settings of automatic cameras on photographic film.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the photographic arts it is very often important to know precisely what shutter speed and aperture settings were used to produce a particular photograhic effect. With older cameras requiring manual aperture and shutter speed settings, obtaining this information was inconvenient, although not impossible, according to prior art techniques, simply by reading the indicated camera setting and manually writing down the observed settings.
However with the modern trend toward electronically controlled cameras, the task of recording aperture and shutter speed settings has become vitually impossible since, in many cases, the particular "setting" exist only for a brief instant in time and is identified only by a control voltage. In such instances, it is impossible to identify or permanently record the electronically developed settings which produce a particular photographic effect.
Some sophisticated electronic cameras include a readout for indicating the instantaneous aperture or shutter speed setting at the instant a photograph is to be taken. While such devices provide an indication of the settings in question, they provide no technique of recording the settings, and thus require memorization of the indicated settings and manual recording of them in substantially the same manner as with manually settable cameras. The difficulties in these recording techniques are set forth in more detail in my above referenced patent and application. Essentially, manual recording is very cumbersome, often results in many errors and often causes significant confusion in relating the recorded information with the corresponding negatives.
My previous patent and application describe methods and apparatus for automatically recording the camera setting information on film negatives so that no inconvenience is experienced and so that the possibility of error is eliminated. However, my previously described apparatuses were applicable only to manually settable equipment, creating a need for an improved apparatus to record the settings of automatic cameras.